By Jordan Studer
jstuder@wbcowqel.com

Summer vacation has barely started, but the Colonel Crawford school board was already making plans for student transportation for the next school year on Monday.

After agreeing on the recommendation to scrap four old buses that have not been used in years, the board approved placing the purchase of two 71-passenger busses into next year’s budget. It was clarified that the purchase of only one school bus is anticipated, but asking for two may be a good idea in case another can be purchased.

The retire/rehire of maintenance Mike Hensley and bus driver Roger Haas for the 2015-2016 school year was discussed at the meeting for the first time. Board members emphasized the importance of both men in the running of the school and would be a great loss if not hired back. Further discussion is to take place at future meetings.

Also brought to the attention of the board, was the resignation of Stephanie Geiger as of the end of the 2014-2015 contract year.

Board members approved a resolution for an amendment to the architect/engineer agreement with Fanning/Howey, Inc. in connection with the district’s Ohio Facilities Construction Commission Classroom Facilities Assistance Program Project.

It was mentioned that the amendment is a lot of the local share being paid for, for the extra sidewalk and extra footer for the wall of gymnasium. The footer is recommended so that in the future when it becomes time for the gym to be built, the footer is already there and paid for. Superintendent Todd Martin emphasized that the amount that is being used is still under the budget that was projected by about $27,000.

The board also said that the construction project of the new wing is well under way and on schedule.

At the conclusion of the meeting, board member Norm Huber expressed the concern of many regarding the amount of students the district has had to turn down in the past year due to the lack of space. One big problem is that open-enrollment students do not count when it comes to state money for the building project. If they were included in the count, the situation would be different.

Huber mentioned that the district’s state representative, Jeff McClain, has agreed to look into the situation to see what can be done.